The shy girl who became national team captain: a bioecological narrative of an Olympian’s life skills development

Abstract

Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory scrutinized how the complex relationship between person and environment leads to human ­development. Although the concept of life skills is influenced by Bronfenbrenner’s work, exploration of the bioecological theory in sport psychology is limited. The bioecological theory was used to explore the life skills development of Júlia, a 38-year-old woman who competed nationally in track and field and internationally in rugby. Júlia completed a timeline and engaged in four interviews, and four social agents were interviewed to nuance her developmental journey. Inductive dialogic narrative analysis was conducted to present Júlia’s journey through creative nonfiction. Júlia developed life skills (e.g. communication, teamwork) from progressively more complex interactions through interpersonal relationships, experiences, and challenges in different contexts (e.g. school, work). Insights concerning the bidirectional nature of life skills development and transfer are discussed, as well as the influence sustained by the person’s biopsychosocial characteristics, culture, and time.

Keywords:

• Human development
• bioecological theory
• life skills development
• life skills transfer
• high-performance sport

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Júlia referred to “kissing” as giving a kiss on the cheek, which is a common form of greeting in Brazil for all people regardless of age, gender, or prior relationship.

2 Form of restarting the match after a minor rule violation that involves players packing down together to push the opposing team and gain ball possession.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) through Finance Code 001 and CAPES-PrInt Program.